It gives us a better chance to win, but I am kind of mad Evans isn't playing. I saw him play in high school and he always had that NBA game, well, except for the jumper. That will develop though and it's not hurting him too bad right now.

I am still stunned at Jordan's failure to understand matchups on either end. Defensively, he's obviously inept, but how can an alleged offensive guru ignore offensive mismatches?

They ran a Screen/Roll with Dre/Brand in the 2nd that produced a dunk. In fact, SAC defensed it so poorly that there were only three possibilities: Brand Dunk, Dala Dunk, or a possible And-1 foul by SAC. Yet, they never ran that play again for the rest of the half.

I guess he got pissed that Brand got a dunk off of Iguodala's playmaking huh?

Someone explain to me why, with that lineup, Brand was out guarding Beno beyond the three-point line? WTF?

You have four smalls on the floor and Jordan is up off the bench yelling at Brand to get out to the three-point line to guard him? I just don't fucking get it. There wasn't even a pick set, nothing to throw off the defense and force a switch.

Amazing what knocking down some shots and making your fair share of threes can do. Just an all around scrappy effort from everyone sans J Smith. Even early in the first quarter with the sloppy play, they were exerting good energy and hustling.

The Jordan era lives on. It's only 51 more games to go in this season with him as the head man. Well coached and good/different combinations on the floor tonight. But the effort and shot-making takes the cake.

I'm holding firm that it's still mostly the players. Because they sure seem to be coming around with that somehow hard-to-find pride and finally-found beating-heart. The intensity, all-out hustle, and especially the communication has sustained itself for two straight games - may be the first time all year that was displayed by the guys.

Injuries are hopefully a thing of the past and the many close losses are starting to turn the other way now. Two good finishes and close-outs in a row. Back-to-back will be tough tomorrow night and keeping their two bigs off the glass. Equal them on the boards and someone/anyone contain Baron's creation and it should be three in a row.

Yep, shooting 52.5% from the field and 56.3% from three is usually enough to out-score a sub-.500 team without their two best players. Kudos, Eddie Jordan. Especially loved the Jrue, Lou, Kapono, Smith, Brand lineup midway through the first quarter. Stroke of genius.

Baron shot 2-15 tonight from the floor against the Blazers in a close loss. That means there will be a distinct chance he will be annoyed tomorrow night, and finding himself on national TV being guarded by one of EJ's "oompa-loompas" from the tip could mean serious trouble

- When Iggy plays within himself (doesn't take a lot of 3s/lazy long jumpers and try to do everything himself on the offensive end) like he did tonight, he is one of the better all-around forwards in the game. Unfortunately, he just doesn't do this often enough.

- Carney had his highlight game of the year tonight. Made more buckets (5) and 3s (4) than he had in the previous month. If Carney could actually shoot with any kind of real consistency, he would actually be a very useful bench player in the NBA.

- I guess winning is better than constant losing (which can be poisonous to a team with so many younger players) but this was one of the rare road wins the 76ers should have taken against a team missing their 2 best offensive scorers.